1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus and an imaging method which obtain a plurality of pieces of image data while changing a focus position and combine the plurality of pieces of image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is difficult to take a photo focused at all the focus positions. Therefore, it is proposed to move a focus position after obtaining image data by taking a photo and take a photo again so as to obtain image data, and to obtain a plurality of pieces of image data by repeating this, and then, to combine the plurality of pieces of image data, thus providing image data focused for a wide range of a subject distance (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-298755 (hereinafter, referred to as “Patent Literature 1”)). Note that, this combining processing is referred to as focus stacking processing.
Moreover, highlight processing (also called “focus peaking processing” or “subject outline processing” for displaying a focused portion in a photographed image is known (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-136429 (hereinafter, referred to as “Patent Literature 2”)). This highlight processing is processing to make a portion with high contrast in an image easily viewable by highlighting a signal of a high frequency component relative to a signal of a low frequency component with respect to an image signal.
By applying the highlight processing also to a combined image generated by the focus stacking processing, a portion with high contrast in the image, that is, a focused portion can be easily checked. Particularly in live-view display, by checking the depth combined image to which the highlight processing is applied, a focusing range can be easily checked.